Trying to Relish the Big Time, Even When It Brings a Cringe

John Dehlin came from Logan, Utah, to see “The Book of Mormon” and found it reminiscent of his missionary years in Guatemala.Credit
Richard Perry/The New York Times

The house lights came up and it was intermission at “The Book of Mormon,” the new Broadway musical about a pair of innocent young Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda to spread the faith. John Dehlin, a graduate student who flew in from Utah to see the show with a group of Mormons from around the country, was still riveted to his theater seat, having flashbacks.

“It’s way, way too close to home,” he said, recalling his own missionary years in Guatemala: the shock at the poverty and violence, the pressure from the mission president to baptize more natives, the despair when his mission companion ran off with a local girl — and the Mormon mandate, above all, to repress doubt and remain relentlessly cheery.

A friend in the crowded theater aisle, Paul Jones, passed by and gave Mr. Dehlin a high-five and a hug. “It’s right on,” said Dr. Jones, a dentist from Gilbert, Ariz., “but I cringed a little bit, a couple of times.”

The arrival of a Broadway musical that ridicules their religion, produced by the creators of the scathingly satirical television show “South Park,” is proving to be a cringe-worthy moment for many Mormons.

And yet, even though the very name of the show appropriates the title of the church’s sacred scripture, there have been no pickets or boycotts, no outraged news releases by Mormon defenders and no lawsuits.

This is intentional. Mormons want people to know that they can take it.

They have held their heads high during “Big Love” and “Sister Wives” — television shows about polygamists in fundamentalist Mormon sects. They survived scrutiny during the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008, and they are bracing for more in 2012 when two Mormons may enter the race: Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Jon Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah.

As for the musical, conservative Mormons have ignored or denounced it. The Mormon Church itself (formally called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has signaled to members to turn the other cheek, while quietly preparing to make the best of the publicity — for instance, posting material on the church’s Web site about the growth of the faith in Africa.

Meanwhile, some more liberal Mormons (and some ex-Mormons) are making pilgrimages to New York to see it. They are even celebrating the show as a sign that their faith has finally made the big time.

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Josh Gad, center left, and Andrew Rannells in the musical "The Book of Mormon" at the Eugene O'Neill Theater.Credit
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

“Mormonism is mainstream,” said Dustin C. Jones, a lawyer and a Mormon from Phoenix, who saw the show with Mr. Dehlin, “and when you want to be a mainstream religion you open yourself up to mainstream criticism. Catholics have been subject to criticism for decades. Now we’ve arrived, and we’re on Broadway.”

There is a reason that many of the Mormons who attended with him found the show to be so evocative. In an interview, Matt Stone, one of the “South Park” creators, said that he and his collaborators did their homework.

Mr. Stone, Trey Parker (his “South Park” colleague) and Robert Lopez (the creator of the musical “Avenue Q”) traveled together to Palmyra in upstate New York to see the pageant the church stages annually retelling the story of how the prophet Joseph Smith discovered the golden plates from which he translated the Mormon scriptures (the Broadway musical opens with a parody of the pageant).

The musical’s creators ordered books and videos from the church. And Mr. Lopez had a long phone talk with a Mormon missionary who served in Uganda, whom he contacted using a feature on the church’s own public relations Web site, mormon.org.

Despite the research, the show takes liberties with many of Mormonism’s sacred beliefs. One missionary, in an effort to win over the Ugandans, concocts scripture passages about Smith’s battles with warlords, diarrhea and AIDS.

He finally baptizes a nubile village girl, and their ecstatic duet suggests they shared more than a mere dunk.

Mr. Stone, who calls himself a “religion-liking atheist,” said he did not consider the show to be anti-Mormon. He said of his missionary characters: “These kids are sent to the other side of the world to spread stories and scripture that they love, and when they get there, none of what they’ve learned in Utah makes any sense in this new land. But the love and the spirit do.”

The lesson, he said: “A book of scripture can change your life, even if the book consists of made-up stories.”

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Church headquarters in Salt Lake City has had a nonchalant response to the musical.Credit
Douglas C. Pizac/Associated Press

The church’s reaction has been to release a one-sentence statement carefully crafted to be nonchalant: “The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people’s lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ.”

The church issued the statement well before the show opened, trying to set an example for members not to get defensive or angry. Some are waiting to hear whether Mormon leaders address the issue at the church’s General Conference in Salt Lake City this weekend.

After the show last Friday, his flashbacks fading, Mr. Dehlin steered his group to Ellen’s Stardust Diner to talk it over. Many of them were meeting in person for the first time, brought together by Mr. Dehlin’s podcast and Web site, mormonstories.org, which often casts a critical eye on the church.

At one table sat three Mormons with three very different experiences of the church: a Mormon convert, a child of converts, and a descendant of an early Mormon leader. The convert, who did not want his name used because he said his conversion could jeopardize his job, said he was “aghast at how sacrilegious the show was.”

The child of converts, Natasha Parker, said that her mother-in-law would have walked out, but that she found it insightful, especially the “Turn It Off” song.

“Whatever is dangerous, you are told just to shut it off,” said Ms. Parker, a family therapist in Wichita, Kan., a mother of four and a practicing Mormon.

The third, Adam Ford, a lawyer in Alpine, Utah, said he thought the play was “inspired.” He said he is a great-great-grandson of Willard Richards, a private secretary to Joseph Smith.

“The things they’re making fun of are the myths that don’t affect our everyday lives,” said Mr. Ford, a father of six who teaches gospel doctrine, the Mormon term for Sunday school.

The myths may be outlandish, he said, “but people are blessed by it.”

A version of this article appears in print on March 31, 2011, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Trying to Relish The Big Time, Even When It Brings a Cringe. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe